8 Chapter 8: Leaving

I went to Damon's office as soon as possible. He was surprised to see me wielding a dagger and a small baby armor, just like the other children when they saw me.

He then asked me, "What's going on? Why are you wearing that? And why are you holding a knife?"

"I don't know why, but I can feel numerous energy signatures surrounding the village. One of them even has the same amount of energy as you, which is a first for me." Of course, this was a lie, tutorial bot was the one who sensed them, not me.

Damon's face grew serious as he said, "Energies? What are they like?"

"They all feel different and yet they're all the same. When they're feeling any kind of emotion, their energies spike up and down a lot. I don't know how to explain it in a more detailed way but basically, that's how it is." Another lie, I just recited the same thing that tutorial bot explained to me about mana, with a bit of tweak here and there.

Damon nodded, his face growing more serious than ever, "When were you able to sense these energies?"

"I can't remember, but if I had to guess, it might've happened a few days ago," I replied with another lie.

You know, I'm feeling quite guilty at the moment. Lie after lie, that's all Damon hears from me. But I know this is for the best, they can't find out the truth about me. I can't comprehend whether it is a primal instinct or not, but I have this fear of someone finding out about tutorial bot and my status screen. It must be a planted instinct since this makes no sense.

"A few days ago, huh. No matter. I'll go out to find these energy signatures you sensed. You can excuse yourself now." Damon said.

I complied and left his office. Even though I know what's happening currently, I don't have the power nor the strength to fight them. I am powerless, and that pisses me off. Am I being impatient? That may be so, but this feeling of powerlessness is annoying and infuriating. Maybe if I wasn't born with intelligence and instead grew up like most humans, then I would've been spared from this emotion.

I'm just 2 years old, and the things I worry about are the things you'll never see an average two-year-old think about. They'll probably just go "Da-da-da-da" but here I am, already able to speak our language more fluently than most adults at the age of 2 years old.

But in the end, I don't have any control over this. I was created for purposes that I don't quite understand, and just the confirmation from tutorial bot about my existence relieves me because I know I was not created for no purpose whatsoever.

Then, as I was about to go down the stairs, I heard a very loud voice that almost shook my head.

"PEOPLE OF THE VILLAGE! GIVE US FLARE AT ONCE, OR WE'LL USE EVERY BIT OF OUR POWER TO TAKE HER BY FORCE! AND BELIEVE ME WHEN I SAY THIS; ALL OF YOU WILL DIE ONCE WE UNLEASH OURSELVES UNTO YOUR VILLAGE!"

It was obvious that someone amplified their voice with their mana energy, and this dreaded me because for someone to do this, they must have a certain amount of control towards their mana, and the control needed is huge. Mana control is said to be a hard thing to do, and this was stated in the history book I read.

Mana control is divided into 5 levels in the bronze continent, and the higher the level, the more I can control my mana but more on that later. I need to see what's going on.

After a few minutes of going down the stairs carefully, I heard the voice again, this time it's louder than before.

"IT SEEMS LIKE NO ONE HEARD WHAT I SAID! GIVE US FLARE FROM THE SARIEL ORPHANAGE AND WE'LL SPARE ALL OF YOU!"

Shit, they're really after Flare. And they know that announcing their objective in front of the entire village will turn the people against us. The people in the village are mostly ignorant, and that's what makes them fearsome. Ignorant people are the worst, as it was shown in the entire history of the world because they make choices on a matter they don't understand and by doing that, they are just ruining things for other people. And usually, they feel good about themselves because they think that they did the right thing when most often than not, the only thing they do is cause suffering.

This is bad, what do I do!?

Suddenly, I felt someone grab me and then carried me.

I looked up and saw Damon's face full of worry and restlessness.

"What's happening, Damon?" I asked, panicking.

He replied as he ran down the stairs, "We are leaving the village through the underground tunnel I made under the orphanage. Your older siblings are already taking the others to the tunnel, so you're the last one left."

What? There's a tunnel under the orphanage!? Well, that's highly convenient.

As I was about to ask something, he cut me off by saying, "Don't ask any more questions, we don't have time for that. The people of the village are already rallying in front of the gates."

As he said that, I heard people screaming outside, I couldn't even understand them because they kept overwriting others with their screams. They sounded like countless banshees screeching as if their life depended on it.

Soon, we reached the basement where many of my siblings in all but blood gathered. Most of them were carrying backpacks, some small, some big. I was the only one not carrying anything due to my age.

The basement's big, maybe around the size of our living room. There wasn't much stuff here and it's only lit by candle lamps that everyone carried in their hands.

Then I saw the oldest one out of all of us, Vane, carrying the comatose Flare on his back.

Vane is an albino, so most of his physical features were white except for his eyes, which are blue. I noticed that almost all of them are wearing black coats with hoods on them, and I thought to myself, 'Damn, why is everyone here so fast at getting ready?' Though I know the answer for that, I just couldn't help but say that in my mind.

"Is everyone ready?" Damon asked, and they all said yes.

"Then let's go." He snapped his fingers and a part of the floor suddenly turned wood brown and a trapdoor opened in the middle of the floor, and I saw stairs that went down deeper than I can even imagine. It was dark in there, and some children were shaking in fear when they only looked at it for a moment. Even I felt chills when I saw how dark it was.

"All of you, go first. I will go last." He said, and they all complied.

Slowly, one by one, they all went down the dark and eerie stairs with their lamps. Thankfully, the space was large enough for everyone to fit in via a formed vertical line. Even the fattest among us, Harry, managed to fit inside the closed space.

And finally, when the last one, Vane, entered inside while carrying the unconscious Flare, Damon went in while he was carrying me.

Slowly, we descended the stairs. I heard loud noises coming from the surface, the crowd of villages finally broke into our previous home. Many of the older children hide their pain as they realized that they are leaving the home they have been living in for many years. I, too, felt that pain but I can't turn around now. We're going to die if we go back.

After 10 minutes of descending the stairs, we entered into the tunnel Damon said. It was bigger than I expected, and no dirt could be seen. It was squeaky clean as if someone went down here to clean every single day. The tunnel's also made of smooth stone, and I even wondered how this hasn't collapsed yet. There are no supporting structures anywhere, only a pure stone tunnel that stretched to the west as far as the eyes can see.

It was dark in here, but we had candle lamps so we could see a little bit.

"I'm sure all of you have a lot of questions right now," Damon said, gaining their attention, "But I'll answer them once we reach the end of the tunnel. Please, just bear with me."